Naomi Campbell Is Going to Become a Designer

Yesterday, at the British Vogue Festival in London, Naomi Campbell announced that she’s moving into fashion design. During an audience Q&A, a super-fan stood up wearing a (possibly homemade) Naomi T-shirt, and told her how much he loved her style and asked whether she’d ever develop her own line. Campbell confirmed that she’s working on something, but kept the details vague.

“I always had this feeling of, I love working with designers — I don’t want to be their competition, and maybe if I do my own line they won’t work with me any more,” she said. “Now I’ve grown up a bit more, I will be [launching a line], yes … I will design not just for women of color, but for all. I see there’s lots of things that are not there that I feel that I’d like to have, and so I’d like to share it with everybody. So yes, I will, and hopefully one of the things will be out by 2015.”

She’s also working on a book of naked photographs with Paolo Roversi. “I thought they were never going to be seen,” she said. “They’re nude pictures of me from 15 years ago. I said, Not coming out, not coming out! And then I finally decided they can come out. But they’re tasteful.”

Campbell was interviewed by British Vogue’s Alexandra Shulman, who asked her whether she feels the fashion industry’s attitude towards ethnic diversity is shifting. “Yes, I do feel that things are changing, that’s why I’ve brought this,” she replied, pulling out a dog-eared copy of the March issue of British Vogue. She’d marked several pages, and held the magazine up to point out the many models of color featured in the spring campaigns.

“When we started this whole thing about diversity, it wasn’t just about the fashion shows — it was that the designers would then follow through and use models of color in the campaigns, which is what we’ve all wanted to see,” she said. “And you’ve got so many — I was so happy to see this issue. You’ve got Prada [featuring Cindy Bruna and Malaika Firth], you’ve got Tom Ford Beauty [featuring Betty Adewole]. I mean I’ve never seen anything like this. This shows that there is a change for the positive and we’re going in the right direction. So this issue is a treasure, because it’s the first landmark.”